After Monday’s record-breaking drop, investors on Tuesday braced for further chaos. With global markets in disarray, the Dow Jones dropped 500 points at the open, only to jump back up. Trump has been silent about the stock market throughout this period, despite frequently claiming that the bull market was proof his economic policies were working.
Monday’s sell-off was triggered by anxiety that the Federal Reserve might raise its benchmark interest rate. But it also may have been inevitable. The stock market had been roaring for years without a correction, and Monday’s steep plunge may be a sign that a correction is coming.
Though Trump has been uncharacteristically quiet about the stock market’s movements, the White House did issue a statement highlighting the “long-term economic fundamentals, which remain exceptionally strong,” thus downplaying the market’s rollercoaster ride as irrelevant to the overall health of the economy. This is probably the right tack, it’s just not the one that Trump has made for the past year.